Manchester United will be paying more than £20m for Phil Jones – Blackburn manager Steve Kean

Phil Jones of Blackburn (Getty Images)

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Manchester United are set to pay more than £20 million for England under-21 international Phil Jones, Blackburn Rovers manager Steve Kean has revealed.

Jones’s transfer to the Red Devils was confirmed earlier on Monday and Kean said that the player wanted to play in the Champions League.

He had become a regular in the team this season despite suffering knee ligament damage and he rejected the advances of Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham before accepting overtures from Old Trafford.

Kean admits that the money they will receive will be in excess of £20m but they would have preferred to retain the youngster.

“We fought very hard to keep him but, yes, he’s going to be a Manchester United player now,” he told Sky Sports.

“We gave it a real good fight, a fantastic offer and we understand why he wants to go now and he’s been a great young player and one that’s come through our academy.

“Contracts are very complicated but with the games that he will play and with different bits and bobs that will be added on it will go above £20 million so it’s a very, very big fee. But that never detracted the fact that the owners wanted to keep him.”

Kean had spoken with the owners about trying to keep Jones and they put forward a deal that would have made the teenager the club’s biggest earner.

He added: “I sat down with the owners and said how we was one of the lads which came through alongside Junior Hoilett, Martin Olsson, Grant Hanley and all those coming through and they said ‘make him the biggest offer you want to make him’, which was the way it panned out.

“I’m sure Phil and his representatives will verify this but the offer we made to him was staggering for a 19-year-old but that’s what we thought of him.

“It quickly became apparent that it wasn’t really about money which is understandable to a certain extent.

“Phil wanted to play Champions League football and he wanted to play it now and we’re not at that level but I’m sure we will be in the coming years and that was the thing that was really exciting him about Manchester United.”

Kean also said that there was no ill feeling towards the player and that he went with the blessing of everyone at the club.

“He goes now with our blessing,” he said. “We were hoping he was going to be the captain of our club and the captain of England as it’s panned out now he’s moved to Manchester United. He’s a fantastic young prospect.”